Tonight’s Evening Brief is brought to you by the Ottawa Economics Association (OEA). Join the OEA for an in-depth discussion on how Canada can achieve inclusive economic growth. Sessions will explore the gender wage gap, strategies for financial inclusion, inclusive tax policy and the progressive trade agenda.

Good evening to you.

The Lead:

We begin today on the Hill, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has just announced the government will create a legal framework for Indigenous peoples’ rights.

“Together we will take concrete action to build a better future, a better Canada for Indigenous peoples and for all Canadians,” he said.

The rights-based framework intends to draft new ways to recognize and implement Indigenous rights through new legislation. The government will also it to guide all its interactions with Indigenous peoples and to advance self-determination, including the “inherent right of self-government.”

Its contents haven’t yet been determined, but will be carved out of consultation efforts led by Crown-Indigenous relations minister Carolyn Bennett. Consultations will go into the spring. Trudeau also committed today to ensure it is implemented before the next federal election. Rachel Gilmore reports.

In Canada:

The Boushie family might be leaving Ottawa today, but they’ll be back. “We will be speaking out. This does not end here,” said Jade Tootoosis Brown, Colten Boushie’s cousin. They leave in their wake government commitments to concrete action on justice system reforms. They travelled from Saskatchewan so they could pass their message along to politicians. A 22-year-old Indigenous man, Boushie was gunned down on a farm in Saskatchewan. All all-white jury found the farmer who shot him not guilty on Friday, fuelling the family’s desire for justice. Gilmore’s got that story as well.

In related news, Liberal MP Robert-Falcon Ouellette has walked back his statement that he’s ‘sorry for the Stanley family.’ “At the end of the day, life is more important than property,” he said today. The Winnipeg politician came under fire for comments he made in an interview after an all-white jury found Saskatchewan farmer Gerald Stanley not guilty of killing Colten Boushie, a 22-year-old Indigenous youth, in 2016. Like Boushie, Ouellette’s family is from Red Pheasant First Nation. “I’m really sorry for the Boushie family,” Ouellette told the Winnipeg Free Press.

Trudeau also announced today that he has nominated lawyer Caroline Maynard as Canada’s next access-to-information watchdog. Maynard has been serving as the interim chairperson and CEO of the Military Grievances External Review Committee since early 2017. She was just reappointed to the position for a three-month term in January. Beatrice Britneff reports.

Former Ontario PC Leader Patrick Brown claimed today that CTV News “fabricated a malicious and false report” about him after a woman who accused him of sexual misconduct said she was in fact not underage at the time of the alleged incident involving the provincial politician. The woman, one of two anonymous women who have accused Brown of sexual misconduct, originally told CTV News she was in high school when the alleged event occurred.

Although the unnamed woman has insisted the new timeline of the alleged incident does not change the core of her allegations, Brown called the new detail “monumental” in a post on his Facebook page Wednesday afternoon and challenged his two accusers to go to police. Britneff has that story as well.

For the second year in a row, the federal budget will have gender equality weaved throughout its dense pages — something that makes Bardish Chagger, Government House Leader and Minister of Small Business and Tourism, pleased. “In 2017, it was the first time a budget was released that had the gender-based analysis lens applied to it and yes, I think that will be the norm going forward,” said Chagger. She noted that a female-focused budget is key to the growth of the economy and by failing to do so, we miss out on the potential of nearly half of Canada’s workforce. That story from Sarah Turnbull.

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland says Canada supports Peru’s decision not to allow the president of Venezuela to attend the upcoming Summit of the Americas. Peru is hosting this year’s Summit of the Americas, a regional policy gathering, which will take place in Lima in April. Peru’s Foreign Minister Cayetana Aljovin said Tuesday that Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro’s “presence will no longer be welcome.” The move comes amidst increasing tension between Colombia and Venezuela, and as Veneuzuela’s economic and humanitarian crisis worsens. Janice Dickson reports.

A Canadian senator wants to know if allowing cannabis to be grown outdoors would leave them vulnerable to aerial drones, which could then swoop down from the sky and steal the plants. Senators took a field trip to Smiths Falls on Monday to visit Canopy Growth’s facilities, which is a licensed producer of medical cannabis, as part of their study on the Liberal government’s cannabis legislation. Independent Sen. Ratna Omidvar, who went on the trip, raised the concern in the Senate after the company’s CEO Bruce Linton brought up in conversation that the new cannabis regime could allow for some companies to grow cannabis in open fields — areas vulnerable to unmanned aerial vehicles. Kyle Duggan has more details.

The Liberal government says it is not “interfering” with the Senate to speed up passage of its cannabis legalization bill. Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor told reporters Wednesday the government isn’t behind a warning from Sen. Peter Harder to call for time allocation on Bill C-45 if an agreement can’t been reached soon on setting a relatively speedy legislative timeline to move the bill through the Senate. Duggan has that story as well.

Two years after the party rewrote the preamble to its constitution to reduce the use of the word “socialism” to “a mere background reference,” should they now take steps to “bring socialism back” by expanding the text to include a full definition of the term as “a cooperative commonwealth in which public ownership and democratic control by working people of the major means of production”? That’s among the questions that almost certainly won’t make it to the plenary floor when New Democrats descend on Ottawa for the party’s biennial policy convention this weekend. More from Kady O’Malley.

The RCMP’s dispatch operators and wiretap monitors voted to join the Canadian Union of Public Employees making them the first sworn members of Canada’s national police force to unionize. CUPE has notified the RCMP employees it will be representing that it was successful in the certification vote held between Jan 22 and Feb 4. A new local will be created representing some 1,300 RCMP employees. Kathryn May reports.

Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc found support for his proposed ban on the capture of wild cetaceans while attending question period in the Senate yesterday — and he could be forgiven if he was surprised by the source. That story from Holly Lake.

The 46 new registrations posted to the federal lobby registry between February 5 to February 11 show an American security technology company is gearing up to lobby for federal contracts “for the excise stamping of tobacco and cannabis.” Britneff has that and more in the latest lobby wrap.

Kelowna West by-election to determine former B.C. premier’s replacement today (CP)
Time to confront anti-black racism in prisons, N.S. senator says (CP)
Six marijuana companies announce deals to supply Quebec with cannabis (CP)
Statistics Canada looking down the drain to determine levels of pot consumption (CP)
Son of former Ontario premier Harris considering a run for Waterloo riding (The Record)
‘Tiger’ Williams continued tour while victim of alleged sex assault flew home to Canada (The Star)

Internationally:

President Donald Trump said today he is “totally opposed” to domestic violence, breaking an eight-day silence on the allegations that led to staff secretary Rob Porter’s resignation from the White House.

“I am totally opposed to domestic violence of any kind. Everyone knows that,” he said, waving his finger as he spoke to reporters in the Oval Office. “It almost wouldn’t even have to be said. So, now you hear it, but you all know it.”

Trump had remained silent on the issue after Porter was accused of physical abuse by his two ex-wives, helping fuel a controversy that has engulfed the White House. And for the past week, he’d repeatedly declined to answer questions about Porter’s accusers and female abuse victims in general. Instead, he praised the former aide’s job performance and tweeted a defense of men whose “lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation.” More from The Hill.

Meanwhile, lawmakers are losing confidence in the White House after Porter’s resignation. The House Oversight Committee kicked off an investigation into Trump’s employment of Porter and what White House officials knew about domestic abuse accusations against him. Politico reports. And there’s word a third White House official has resigned after being told he wouldn’t qualify for full security clearance.

“Everything is off now, and Stormy is going to tell her story.” That’s what Stormy Daniels’s manager told The Associated Press today. Gina Rodriguez said the porn star believes Trump attorney Michael Cohen invalidated a non-disclosure agreement after two news stories were published Tuesday about the payment he made to Daniels out of his own pocket and another that said he was shopping a book proposal.

As for Mike Pence and his Olympic adventure, in an interview with Axios’ Mike Allen, he revealed that he intentionally ignored Kim Jong Un’s sister while he was seated next to her at the 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony. What do we call that exactly? Silent or sandbox diplomacy?

In South Africa, President Jacob Zuma resigned today in a televised address to the nation, avoiding his almost certain ouster in a parliamentary vote scheduled for Thursday after years of corruption scandals. His resignation came after the ruling African National Congress party instructed him to leave office by the end of Wednesday or face the motion of no confidence in parliament. His departure ended a leadership crisis in one of Africa’s biggest economies and set the stage for ruling party lawmakers to elect acting president Cyril Ramaphosa, previously deputy president, as Zuma’s successor. AP reports.

It was ski day on the Hill today. Parliamentarians and senators were joined by Governor General Julie Payette for the third annual cross-country ski event. Put on by former Olympian and Sen. Nancy Greene Raine, the day aims to promote National Health and Fitness Day. Greene said she’d like to see cross-country ski tracks groomed in school yards or “wherever there’s snow” across the country. “In Canada, we live with winter. It comes for fourth-five months a year and we should get out an enjoy it. It’s magic once you know how,” she said.